Only A Potential

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January ends and February begins under the illuminating light of a Full Moon bathing the Earth in a misty glow of rebellion. The Moon in Leo opposing the Sun in Aquarius proudly announces the potential fulfillment of a seed planted at the Solar Eclipse when the Sun and Moon conjoined in Capricorn. The astrology I practice is seeking to understand the significance of human experience, and one path to that understanding is our seeing every moment of life as a seed moment carrying our potential flowering while remaining aware that nothing is guaranteed without our conscious awareness of making it so.

This Full Moon punctuates our unconscious motives, the Moon, opposing our conscious realizations, the Sun, by directing our attention to the archetypal themes of Leo and Aquarius. When we are under the influence of Leo we are given a celestial mandate to see ourself in what we create whether it be a child of our body or of our imagination. Leo is that aspect in each of us bursting forth with creative self-expression showering others with our exuberant appetite for enjoying the wealth of life.  For this reason, those of us with a strong influence of Leo in our natal chart are accused of craving material luxuries, and while often true, at the deepest level of human experience the wealth we crave under the golden rays of Leo is the richness of our unique self shinning brightly for others to see. Leo radiates the solar light of the summer sun most powerful during the year, and infusing our life force with the animating intelligence of life, we feel the full flowering of our potential.  On a more prosaic level Leo is our capacity to play and experience pleasure in every moment lived, and abandoning thought and care of past or future, loosing ourself in the pure joy of being.

This is of course the bright face of Leo reflecting the spontaneous laughter of a child.  But there is a dark face, a shadow face, to Leo that can scorch and burn if we allow our foolish folly to follow the fate of Icarus and carelessly disregarding our physical limitations destroy our life vitality. Learning to accept our limitations in life is the crucial lesson we learn from Saturn and the sign of Capricorn. This may be the celestial message delivered this Full Moon when we consider that the New Moon in Capricorn heralded a potential new birth in our leadership requiring our sober commitment to hard work and tenacious perseverance if we are to accomplish our goals and contribute to humanity the best that we can create.

Two hours before the Sun and Moon opposed on January 29 the Moon conjoined Mars retrograde in Leo, and the Moon translating the light of Mars to the Sun gave us a celestial warning not to repeat past actions that have prevented us from creating the life we want.  Mars in Leo stationed retrograde on December 21 and will station direct on March 10. During this time we have the opportunity to re-consider what our past actions have created and re-discover our individual creativity with a deeper appreciation for what we create in life. Mars Rx in Leo is showing us how we handle conflict and the events that are unfolding now are revealing what our individual desires and willful actions have created in the past.

It is easy to point a finger at our frustration, aggression, anger, and rage as the perpetrators of hostility in our life and throughout the world. And there is of course much truth in this, but it is a superficial blaming and we need to journey deeper into our individual unconscious motives if we are to nurture creative change in ourself, our life, and the world.  Krishnamurti often spoke on behalf of  the individual creating a better Self through enlightened understanding of his or her consciousness as the only possible vehicle for creating a better humanity. This ideal aspiration brings us directly into the sphere of our conscious realization offered by the Sun in Aquarius realizing that everything we create as an individual profoundly influences the collective experience of humanity.

When we are under the influence of Aquarius  traditional astrology teaches that we observe with crystal clarity our individual participation within the group, and using our intellectual acumen, disassociate our subjective needs in favor of the objective needs of the group. There is truth in this but again we need to look deeper at our unconscious motives to understand the significance of our  individual participation within the collective. Aquarius is the sign opposite Leo and the inherent tension between opposite archetypes always signals the necessity for integrating those forces within our psyche. Leo is our heart and Aquarius our mind. When these two forces are integrated our creative self-expression takes flight into the stratosphere of  our originality and inventiveness, and receiving thoughts and feelings never before imagined we experience a change of heart and mind.

A change of heart and mind is exactly what the cosmos is offering under the ethereal glowing of this Full Moon if we have the courage to create ourself and our life in a new way.  It will not be easy. Leo and Aquarius are aspects of ourself seeking security in what we know and in what we have created. Mercury in Capricorn adds a sober atmosphere to our thoughts and feelings insuring a useful and practical administering of our perception of life. Venus in Aquarius separating from the Sun awakens our awareness to the needs of the collective guiding the use of our personal resources on behalf of our common humanity. This Full Moon gives breath to observe ourself creating ourself understanding that it is no longer viable to nurture our illusion of separateness by willfully isolating ourself from one another. Our similarities are far greater than our differences and the mystic vision that all of Life is interconnected is at our door.

Mars in Leo Rx :: December 21 2009 – March 10 2010

Mercury in Capricorn :: December 6 2009 – February 9 2010 (Rx :: December 27 2009 – January 15 2010)

Venus in Aquarius :: January 18 2010 – February 10 2010